


Containment

by Desteros



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Lapis and Jasper, Not Romance, Underwater
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-06-07
Packaged: 2018-03-30 10:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3933634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desteros/pseuds/Desteros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lapis and Jasper's full experience underwater.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Malachite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malachite sinks.

I didn't quite like being stuck inside the same body with my jailer. It was rough and unfinished, like a piece of art scrapped halfway and only could only be interpretted correctly by the most unique of minds.

Together, we sank further and further into the Earth's aquatic realm, thrashing about as the chains only pulled us further down. Our sight was clouded with bubbles as the ocean faded from as orange as the sunset to darker shades of blue and navy colors. Each of our arms tried desparately to resist the chains and swim upwards as the navy began to paint our entire view of the world.

It was hopeless, and I loved it.

"Stop! What are you doing?!" we cried through the building pressure of the water. Then we laughed and muttered, "Together forever."

Now, I'd like to imagine that I'm not so twisted in my head. It's just come to the point where I've been prisoner enough times to finally grow tired of it and wish to turn the tables. Heck, I was stuck in a mirror for dozens of millenia and was later trapped by the gem I was stuck together with now. Why should I just bend over and take it?

Finally, our six arms heavily sank onto the seafloor, clouds of sandy dust danced around us. Organisms glew healthy glows, examining the large new creature in their home. We could see the shackles' end, now, but we could only helplessly gaze at them through the throbbing light of creatures circling around us. No amount of shaking could get the bonds free.

My mind had been fluttering between different realms, lately. Inside the mirror it was cold and dry, yet it was almost like I was stuck in a mold. There was no way for me to move, I could only look out and hardly ever see the environment outside change. There was not even a way for me to go insane because I was stuck in a limbo that I couldn't possibly imagine even becoming real. My exit was right there, tantalizingly close. Some days, if I could even call them that, I would trying to lick the screen before me. ANY contact with the reflective surface would have made me felt better but I couldn't. It was all just a trap of "can'ts," "couldn'ts," and "won'ts."

Then there was one day where the mirror's scene shifted. I saw a human boy. At least, he appeared human. I hadn't heard anything in so long, it took a few minutes to even recognize sound was coming out of his lips.

His name was Steven.

Communication was difficult; it was as if everytime I wanted to say something to him, my memory had seemed to be wiped. The only words I knew were the words I had seen through the mirror.

The ocean was a lot like that. Stuck inside a fitted mold just for the prisoner. Communication was more than difficult to manage. Your body didn't feel like it was yours.

We certainly were unhappy underwater. The chains positioned us where we hardly had any view of the world above. But there was a little view. A little sliver of sunshine through the tops of our eyes, glinting "hello" each morning and groaning "goodbye" each night. Everything was a constant, nothing changed for days. We could only watch the same creatures swim by and the same slints of sunshine tickle the seawater. Patterns began to meld in our head before something changed.

I decided after a while I was going to be better than how I was imprisoned inside the mirror. I was going to allow myself some freedom.

Do you know the feeling of when you wear something tight and uncomfortable for a long time, then you finally take it off. Imagine the thinnest, most tightest outfit you can think of then DOUBLE that intensity. Now how would it feel to take it off?

This is the best way on how it felt when we defused. A huge weight lifted off my shoulders, despite the immense pressure undulating on top of the two of us. It was extremely painful.

The form I saw before me was nothing like the beast I danced with memories before. She was crumpled onto the sandbed by the sand dollar we had been glaring at angrily during the days before. Her white hair was crumpled and lazily picking its edges up off the sand and into the dreary saltwater around her. Her eyes were half-shut; it was clear she was barely conscious. The pain of the pressure seemed apparent on her, too.

Suddenly, feeling a little nice after the torture of the body we had shared, I created a bubble. The little bubble danced with fragile shivers between my palms for a moment, but I willed it to expand. It soon spread it's wings wider, larger than arms length and then surrounding us. The ocean split itself, creating a small vacuole for the two of us. If she wanted to escape, running out of the bubble would just have her pinned by the ocean's uncountable tons of water constantly churning about on the miserable planet of "Earth."

My jailor didn't react to bubble. Her fragile form looked like it had no support inside; it was almost like she was just amorphous now. Her limbs did not even move a wink.

She had felt the mirror.


	2. Rise Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It becomes quite rough in the sea between Jasper and Lapis after defusing.

I didn't even try to stir my jailor. Jasper just continued to lie down, drifting in and out of consciousness in my bubble. She had not retreated into her gemstone, but it didn't even flicker with orange-hued power. It just was cloudy and useless. 

It was a little amusing to see your oppressor in such a delapidated state. Jasper's mind was once vile and powerful but now just vapid; she was useless. No longer could she harm me. Or anyone. At least Jasper was dry; however, the salt sulked into her hair which caused the white locks into a coarse river trickling from her scalp. The crusty waves were still against the sandstone below the two of us.

It was days upon days until Jasper finally began to recover.

At this point, I just finished my ninth reciting of an old Gem poem about a young Gem retreating to another planet to save some race of elves, then Jasper began to wriggle. Her entire body wrinkled in pain for a moment. Each powerful limb quaked with smooth muscle under her striped skin.

I turned away and gazed at the "Big Mouths" floating by. I don't know their proper name, but they had big mouth so that's what I called them. Other "Little Glow Guys" spun around the bubble in repetitious circles. Sometimes, one would cautiously collide their miniscule body (they were no larger that my little finger) with the wall of air I had created.

There was a grunt, almost as miniscule as the Little Glow Guys' bodies, from in front of me and my captive's face quickly charged towards me. Jasper roared heavily, charging at me in full blast. Two chains from the ocean clenched onto her wrists and stopped her short. Jasper fell again onto the sandstone, this time apart from myself.

"Hmph!" I only said to her. Jasper slammed her head against the stone, muttering to herself. I only fiddled with my ribbons and gazed at the woman.

"I can't believe this!" she groaned aloud, clearly unfazed whether or not I would hear her; then she rolled her body over and stared at the dusk painting the slivers of sky above the immense pressure of the ocean. "Prisoner! Me! A prisoner! First I fuse with you of all people."  _So she WAS talking to me._ "Yet I turn into a monstrosity, then YOU overpower me and trap ME. ME!"

All I did was continue to stare at the meek group of Little Glow Guys.

I heard a thump from her slamming her fist to the ground. "Silent treatment, then? Okay, then! Alright! I see how it is!"

Jasper was quite the impatient person, clearly. The ocean was difficult. For both of us.

Time passed, however. She would pace around the bubble with forlorn steps. She would count each and every broken shard of seashell cast aside into the ocean. Sometimes, Jasper would hum battle themes. Other times, a Big Mouth or Dangle Light would stare curiously at the battered face in the bubble. Rarely, they'd stare at Jasper, too.

I didn't speak to her for sixteen nights.


	3. The Seventeenth Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventeen days in and watermelon.

I don't believe any being can ever have Silence as their only friend. Silence is no friend, actually. Silence can only swarm around you, wrapping its elongated fingers around you until you are either forced to subdue to it or eliminate it. Fortunately, Silence didn't get me.

The seventeenth day arose just the same for the most part. The sea was blue, and mysterious creatures examined my bubble. I was very worn at this point, not because of some lack of strength, but of sheer boredom. As childish as it sounds, I needed to be occupied. However, being stubborn somehow took priority for the first days.

That is, until day seventeen.

It was completely by circumstance as well.

Jasper had given up trying to make conversation, and was simply drawing in the dry sand with a pudgy orange finger. I spent most of my days examining the cloudy ocean, sometimes peering above the heavens if I could. Day seventeen was special. Silence finally disappeared.

In the ocean, that day, there was a figure moving along the seafloor. It was coming closer to us. I blinked once, attempting to look closer, but it was just an outline.

A familiar outline. Small, a little round, curly top...

"Steven!" I shouted. I didn't even care to react to Jasper stirring in surprise to hear my voice. "Steven! Steven! You came! Oh thank you!"

The figure rushed closer to my bubble, never faltering from its straight path. As it approached, it became more apparent what this being was. 

It most certainly was NOT Steven. It was shaped just like my Beach Summer Fun Buddy I knew so well, but it was not a human. It was striped in shades of green and was rounded all around. 

I quaked in anger over my false hope as the Steven imposter slowly charged past my oceanic home. I gripped it tight through the salt water and tossed it into the bubble. Jasper scrambled to avoid it.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here you... you... faker!"

Silence clearly had this victim.

I threw my hands in the air and stared fire at the green Steven. "ERGH! I hate you! I hate you!" It only blinked with curiosity at me.

Jasper edged closer to it, mulling over the new member to our with similar curiosity. She poked it, and it didn't react. Jasper frowned and grabbed its arm; it blinked angrily back at her. The Steven swung at Jasper and she shouted out, "Oh, you don't swing at me mister!"

"Hit it! Hit it!" I half-cheered towards the Gem, watching her chase the imposter around in a circle. They kicked up sand into the ocean surrounding us for a little while before Jasper clearly was tired of all the running and just lunged at the little creature. She gripped the arm and pulled tight, tearing it off.

If it had a mouth it clearly would be shouting just the same as I was. It didn't swing at Jasper again, however. 

Inside the arm was red meat. It seemed just, but was filled with black... dots.

"Are... are those seeds?" I faltered, my anger soon soothing. The silent Steven didn't react and only plopped down on its nubby legs. It sent out an air of discontentment.

Jasper shoved her hand inside and pulled out some of the seedy meat. "Seeds?" she questioned, "Is this organic?" She licked it and nodded. There was pink, watery, liquid drizzling down her rigth arms as the hand of the Steven faker was set aside. "'s good," Jasper noted with a tentative smirk. "Wanna try some?" I was surprised by the offer, to say the least.

Something didn't feel right about eating a Steven, even if it were but a fruit of the Earth. I shook my head and turned towards the little being. Despite its quiet composure, I began to interrogate it.

"So, what are you?"

Nothing.

"Do you know Steven?"

Silence.

"Are you associated with the Gems on Earth?"

Zippo.

"How are you here in the ocean?"

Nada.

"Can you speak?"

Zilch.

Jasper put her arm on her knee and said from behind me, "Talking to plants now, huh?"

I scowled at the Gem and gave a spiteful once over before turning back to the Steven-plant. It still didn't speak. It did, however, watch the ocean with a glimmer in its seedy eyes. I asked it several more questions but unforunately Silence was keeping it occupied.

"You don't know do you?" Jasper asked as dusk began to trickle down through the seawater.

Usually I wouldn't humor Jasper in the least but one that seventeenth day I broke our silence. "What?" I uttered.

Jasper lifted the green husk off the sand and gazed at it. "Rose Quartz had the power to create plant soldiers," she said through gritted teeth and tossing the plant's shell between her large palms. "Perhaps that human with her gemstone created this... thing."

In my head, I decided it made sense. Steven did have the stone of Rose Quartz and if she had the power to do this, perhaps he did, too. However, I was still upset at it.

It continued to watch the ocean and saturated the sand below it with it's juices. Still silent.


	4. Seeds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis decides to play with Jasper.

Jasper and I still did not speak much, but with the addition of our new "friend" allowed for some conversation.

Little Glow Guys would often shuffle towards it, but the Steven imposter seemed to only give them an empty gaze. It kept looking in that one direction, paying no mind to anything but the horizion along the bottom of the sea.

Actually, the organic-based being was nameless for a short while, but after its one arm finally stopped dripping, Jasper dubbed it "Seeds." Seeds did not seem to mind the nickname or the fact that Jasper was still fumbling around with the shell of its arm.

Perhaps it was fate for me to have met Steven. For, if he hadn't tried to communicate, I would not have found myself underwater. It's funny, really, to be now (in a way) stuck in the one thing you can control. If it were not for Steven, my ironic prison probably would never be a factor in my life. I can't imagine Seeds feels differently, as there was not a chance that it and Steven were not connected in no way.

In a way, all three of us were connected to Steven.

"Jasper?" I called quietly one star-blanketted night. The sandstone below us felt chilled like the mood; its texture was almost as rough as Jasper's tone. However, I began to grow used to her calloused words.

"What do you want?" she grumbled, lying on her side and gazing in the same direction Seeds was. Her wide-spread back was facing me and inches away from my foot. I could barely see the space despite the dazzling array of crystalline stars above. There were an array of purples and blues displayed above us. I scooted my foot across the space between us and gently poked her back.

She turned her head upwards, side-eyeing me, "Lapis, what do you need?"

I crossed my legs and sucked in my lips. "Well, uh, do you want to play a game?"

Jasper knit her eyebrows into a coarse tapestry. "A game?" she rumbled heavily, "Are you toying with me? I'm your prisoner!"

Carefully, I scooted my legs back into a crossed position. I chided, "No! I'd rather you not go insane, and all."

Games were one of the few things I enjoyed during the first war for Earth. Fighting was truly not my style, despite the Diamonds wanting me to flood over the competition. Still today, shattering gems finds only disgust to me. So, I'd play games with other soldiers in the barracks. Apatite, a somewhat close friend of mine during the war, would play this game called "Poptoss."

"Poptoss," I instructed, "is a game in which there is a scoreboard in the sand and the object of the game is to collect the most points in a single round of three tosses."

The orange gem spun herself upwards into a similar sitting position as mine and then proceeded to prop her elbow on her left knee. She gazed at me with a confused interest.

On all fours, I proceeded to draw a large rectangle going from the edge of the bubble to five feets-length away from Jasper. Seeds broke their attention from the sea and watched me with what I can only assume a similiar confusion as Jasper.

I broke up the rectangle into smaller pieces, getting smaller and smaller in the middle as I progessed further in. "The smaller the rectangle, the more points received," I explained, writing down coinciding numbers with each box.

"Okay, I'll bite. What are we going to toss?" I heard Jasper ask as I wrote down "5" on the furthest and largest box at the far end of the board. The board was nearly cutting into the sandstone portion of the bubble.

Looking around, I attempted to find even pieces to toss. The shards of seashells by Seeds' standing spot were to unlike each other for play.

Then, I realized the answer to the predicament at hand. "Oh, oh, I got it," I said with a pick up in pitch. "We'll use seeds!"

"You want to break 'im up?" Jasper said with a sudden drop of woe. Seeds, too, seemed a little distraught.

I shook my head quickly. I liked Seeds, too. "Not Seeds! Those seeds." I then pointed to the scattered pile of seeds behind Jasper. She turned around and instantly understood. Jasper then began to gather them together, but refused to get up so there was a lot of squirming on her belly and tossing her hair out of the way.

I watched a familiar confused interest.

It didn't take long for her to gather thirty-one seeds from the remains of Seeds' arm. Cautiously, she handed me the dried pile of seeds and I placed them between us.

Then, I took the first move. With a swing of my wrist, I nabbed a seed and tossed it, only able to reach the fifteen point line closest to us. The max, the little sliver of rectangle, was thirty-five points.

Jasper brutishly took her next move, but put too much power into her toss as she got ten points on the far end of the Poptoss board. Seeds then sped over and took up the two seeds; graciously, he put them back into the pile. 

"Thank you, Seeds," I giggled.

We played Poptoss for quite some time afterwards. For a few moments, I felt unconditionally happy underneath that blue-purple night.


End file.
